Final score: Saints 24, Raiders 0 in an embarrassing effort

The Las Vegas Raiders went into a seemingly very winnable game at the New Orleans Saints on Sunday and absolutely laid an egg, losing 24-0. It was the first time the Raiders were shutout since 2014, Derek Carr’s rookie season. This was bad and the Raiders are in trouble. Let’s take a look at the key aspects of the game:

Records:

The Raiders are 2-5. The Saints are 3-5.

What it means:

The Raiders are in a bad way. They are in last place in the AFC West. The Denver Broncos improved to 3-5 and the Kansas City Chiefs, 5-2, and the Los Angeles Chargers, 4-3, had their byes in Week 8. The Raiders still have a winnable four-game stretch ahead of them. But this team just isn’t any good right now and it has built a big hole for themselves. The Saints are not a good team. They are banged up. They were awful on defense going into the game and they are quarterbacked by Andy Dalton. And they smoked the Raiders. Oh, and the Saints’ coach is Dennis Allen, who bombed as the Raiders head coach last decade who was not liked by Raiders’ owner Mark Davis. This is not good.

Turning point:

Truly, the Saints dominated this game in every phase throughout the contest. But a strange two-play sequence in the second quarter when Las Vegas coach Josh McDaniels ran a odd jet sweep run by wide receiver Davante Adams on third and 1 and then a bad fake-punt attempt seemed to signal what type of a day it would be for the Silver and Black.

Injury report:

Raiders’ wide receiver/special teamer DJ Turner left the game with a face injury in the second quarter. The good news is the 53-man roster is fairly healthy.

What’s next:

The Raiders play at the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 9, on Nov. 6 with a 10 a.m. PT kick off. The Raiders will spend the week in Florida so they don’t have to make two long back-to-back trips. The Jaguars are 2-6 after a 21-17 loss to the Denver Broncos in London on Sunday.